Demographic Analysis*
G Sridhar'
ABSTRACT
In the past, consumer involvement has receive4,notable attention among academicians as it is considered to have paradigmatic implications on the consumer decision making. However, studies in this area have been mostly conducted in developed economies and more specifically in US. If the construct has to receive wider acknowledgement and generalisability, there is a need for studies on consumer involvement spanning over varied cultures and contexts. Further, exclusive studies examining the relationship between demographics and consumer involvement are very few. Hence, this study was conducted to examine the relationship between consumer involvement and five key demographics family life cycle, age, sex, income and occupation. After reviewing relevant literature, a survey was conducted taking two products, namely, television and toothpaste. Zaichkowsky's Personal Involvement Inventory has been used to measure consumer involvement. 332 respondents from Hyderabad and Warangal towns were interviewed using structured questionnaire. Results indicate that demographics significantly influence high involved products of the consumers. In case of low involved products, influence of demographics on consumer involvement has been found to be moderate. Implications of the study for academicians and practitioners are also discussed in the paper.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Consumer involvement is a source to explain the differences in the degree of both mental and physical effort of a consumer and his decision making (Beharrell and Denison 1995; Laaksonen 1994). During the past five decades, consumer involvement received notable attention among academicians as it is considered to have paradigmatic implications on the consumer decision
making. There has been an overabundance of research since its origin through the decade of 1980 till 1990's.
However, since then, there has been decelerating number of research studies on the construct. One wonders if the construct has lost its charm or if there is a fatigue to conduct studies on the construct. The fact remains that during the past few years,. there is hardly any study that empirically tested and validated the construct.
Received November 11, 2006; Revised February 13, 2007
1. Fellow (Doctoral) Student, Institute of Rural Management, Anand, e- mail : [email protected], f021Qirma.ac.in
132 Vitakshan, XIMB Journal of Management ; March, 2007
Most of the studies on consumer involvement have been conducted in developed economies and more specifically in US (O'Cass 1998). If the construct has to receive wider acknowledgement and generalisability, there is a need for studies on consumer involvement spanning over varied cultures and contexts. In India, studies on consumer involvement received little attention except for few studies conducted by Avinandan and Anirban (1996), Sadarangani and Sanjaya (1998), Sharma, (2000), Jain and Sharma, (2000, 2002).
Consumer involvement is conceptualized and broadly categorized into four dimensions viz. antecedents, moderating factors, involvement properties and consequences (Antil -1984; Zaichkowsky 1985; Andrews et al 1990; Loudon and Della Bitta 2002). Many scholars have followed the advice of Cohen (1982) and Andrews (1988) who argued that involvement has to be kept separate from its antecedents and its consequences;
otherwise an overly broad construct would result in making investigation of relationships imprecise. Among such studies, there are a very few which attempted to examine the relationship between the demographics and the consumer involvement.
2 . 0 R E S E A R C H O B J E C T I V E
Considering the above mentioned reasons, this study on consumer involvement has been conducted. With the objective of examining the relationship between consumer involvement and demographics in a different temporal and
cultural context. Results of the study are presented in this paper. Two questions that the study attempted to address were 1. How consumer involvement varies
with product?
2. How consumer involvement differs with various demographic characteristics of the consumer?
Answers to the above questions would be useful for both academic and corporate community. For the academic community, this study would be a step further in validation of the construct in a different cultural and temporal context.
For the corporate community, the study would be useful in designing appropriate marketing strategies.
3 . 0 H Y P O T H E S E S
3.1 Consumer Involvement, Same product & Different Products
The concept of involvement originated from Split Half theory where the assumption is that left and right halves of the human brain processes the information differently (Mittal 1987).
'Krugman (1965) proposed that there are two levels of involvement; low and high and associated it with split half theory.
Later, consumer involvement was conseptualised on a continuum with low and high at the two extremes of the continuum (Zaickhowsky 1985; Laurent and Kepferer 1985). When compared to low involved consumers; high involved consumers use more criteria for choice making (Mitchell 1989); search for more information (Beatty, and Smith 1987);
know more about the alternatives (Petty
and Cacioppo 1983, Maheswaran and Levy 1990); process relevant information in detail (Chaiken 1980); and will form attitudes that are more resistant to change (Petty et al 1983).
Importance and interest in the consumer involvement construct has resulted in an extensive body of literature with multitude of definitions and measurements. This has led to contradictory view points on what involvement is and is not. For example, some believe it as perceived personal relevance (Petty and Cacioppo 1981; Antil 1984; Richins and Bloch 1986; Celsi and Olson 1988; Higie and Feick 1989) while some others consider it as a motivational state (Mitchell 1981; Bloch 1982; Bloch and Richins 1983; Greenwald and Leavitt 1984;
Mittal 1989; Andrews et al. 1990). Few other considered consumer involvement in a phenomenological view (Houston and Rothschild 1978; Petty and Cacioppo 1981; Greenwald and Leavitt 1984; Celsi and Olson 1988). Inspite of such diverse views, Mittal (1989) argues that there has been an agreement among various scholars that consumer involvement is a motivational force leading to consumer behaviour and action. Hence, for the study, a motivational paradigm of consumer involvement is considered and defined as unobservable state of arousal and interest and evoked by stimulus or situations having drive properties.
Consumer involvement has been related to objects or levels like product, advertising, message, programme,
situation (Mitchell 1979; Petty and Cacioppo 1981; Laurent and Kepferer 1985; Slama and Taschain 1985) and behaviours like purchase, and response (Clarke and Belk 1978; Antil 1984; Bloch and Richins 1983)
:Though consumer involvement can take place at various levels other than product, Finn (1983) argues that the level of motivation results from product attributes and relatedness of the product to the consumer's psycho social wants and needs. It has also be identified that products which are highly priced, having complex features and high perceived risk generate high involvement levels from the consumers. Consumers express low involvement levels for products which are generally low priced;
have simple features and low perceived risk (Richins and Bloch 1986; Saxena 2002;
Kotler 2002). Thus, the level of consumer involvement is dependent on the product.
As each product has different levels of perceived risk, features and prices, we speculate that the involvement levels would also differ across products. Hence, the following hypotheses :
Hu:
Consumer involvement level is different for two products
H
it,: Consumer involvement levels differ across consumers for every product.
3.2 Demographics & Family size
Among the antecedents of consumer
involvement, person related antecedents
are connected to the needs, values,
characteristics and personality of the
consumer. Within the person related
antecedents demographics have
considerable influence on the consumer
134 Vitakshan, XIMB Journal of Management ; March, 2007
involvement. Some of the demographics considered for the study include family life cycle, age, income, occupation, and sex. Relationship between demographics and consumer involvement is shown in Figure 1.
Scholars observed that major events in life create different social environment that influence consumers affective reactions, cognitions and consumption behaviours (Peter and Olson 2005). They identified that individuals tend to go through certain stages in their lives called Family Life Cycle (Schiffman and Kanuk 2002; Loudon and Della Bitta 2002). An individual passes thorough the stages like bachelorhood, recently married, married and having dependent children, married and non dependent children who are working, married and without spouse. Marketers used family life cycle concept to recognize the stages which are more important for different products and accordingly design strategies related to segmentation, positioning and designing marketing programmes.
Slama and Tashchian (1985) state that family life cycle acts as a summary variable capturing the combined effects of income, age and important
events in life like marriage, birth of children, retirement, and death of spouse. They add that different stages of family life cycle will be involved in purchasing different types of products.
Further, within a product, there would be differences in the involvement levels across the family life stages (Jain and Sharma 2002). On the basis of the above arguments, second hypothesis is formulated as follows :
H2: Consumer involvement for a product differs with the differences in the consumers stages in family life cycle.
3.3 Age
Age carries with it culturally defined behavioural and attitudinal norms (Alreck 2000). Age affects consumers self concept and life styles (Henry 2000). Age determines the consumption of various products, media, and shopping centers and has been used by marketers to segment the markets. Age also influences the level of consumer involvement (Slama and Tashchin 1985; Jain and Sharma 2002). Though age forms a part of one's stage of family life cycle, yet it is in itself an important factor for various products. On the basis of the above arguments the third hypothesis is stated as follows
H3: Consumer involvement levels for
a product vary with differences in the
age segments.
3.4 Sex
Men and women possess unique personality traits, interests, knowledge, judgment capabilities, and social status.
Hence, some scholars believe that both sexes process and evaluate products differently (Eagly and Carli 1981;
Fischer and Arnold 1994; Everhart et al 2001; Sanjay 2001). Also, there are differences in the involvement levels for various products between men and women (Slama and Tashchian 1985;
Jain and Sharma 2002). Hence, fourth hypothesis is proposed as follows
H9: Consumer involvement levels for the products vary between men and women.
3.5 Family Income
Income of the family combined with family's accumulated wealth determines the purchasing power (Hawkins et al 2003). However, income enables purchases but does not generally cause or explain them. It is likely that the occupation and education directly influence the preferences for products, media and activities; income provides the means to acquire them (Mulhern et al 1998). Jain and Sharma (2002) and Slama and Taschian (1985) identified that income influences the involvement levels. Hence, our fifth hypothesis as follows
H5: Consumer involvement levels for a product differ because of the differences in the family income levels.
3.6 Occupation
Occupation is one of the widely applied cues to evaluate an individual (Hawkins et al 2003). It is strongly related to education and income. Various studies have found differences in consumption of products with differences in the occupations. Jain and Sharma (2002) could gather a minimal support for the argument that consumer involvement differs for differences in consumers' occupation. However, it may be speculated that the differences in the involvement levels of consumer would be influenced by different occupations.
Hence, the sixth hypothesis is stated as H6: Consumer involvement levels for a product would differ with different occupations.
4.0 METHODOLOGY
The research design is exploratory and was organized in several stages. In the first stage, relevant literature was reviewed on consumer involvement and demographic variables from various sources like books, articles published in journals, periodicals and newspapers. In the second stage, fifteen consumers were interviewed for about 30 minutes each. Interviews focused on the reasons for purchasing various products, choice of the products, consumer involvement and consumer decision making process. Two products were selected for the study -i.e. television and toothpaste. These products were selected in such a way that one represents high involvement (television) and another
136 Vitakshan, XIMB Journal of Management ; March, 2007
represents the low involvement (toothpaste). These products were selected as they have a wide usage rate. Interviews also helped us to understand the consumer decision making process and the extent of involvement they underwent in the purchase decisions with respect to various products. Later, on the basis of the review of literature, information gathered through interviews, and objectives of the study, hypotheses were formulated for testing. In the third stage, to test the hypothesis, survey method was employed. Data collection included interview technique with structured questionnaire. Five field reporters (students pursuing their management graduation) were chosen to administer the questionnaire to the sample respondents. They were given instructions on how to administer the questionnaire.
The unit of investigation for the study was individual consumer. Sample respondents were chosen from various occupational categories from two major cities in the state of Andhra Pradesh;
Hyderabad and Warangal. We deliberately restricted the categories of the occupations to five on the basis of convenience which include doctors, lecturers, engineers, lawyers and executives of various business organizations. The restriction was done to optimize the time and cost resources.
Forty respondents from each of the select occupations were contacted from Hyderabad totaling to 200. Thirty respondents from lecturers and lawyers categories, twenty five from doctors and
engineers and twenty two executives were selected from Warangal totaling to 132. The aggregate sample for the study was 332. Profile of the respondents is given in Table 1.
Table 1: Profile Of Respondents Demographics Classification Family Life Unmarried (11)
Cycle Married and no children (58) Married and children (atleast one) below 20 years (137) Married and children above 20 years (116)Married and alone (10)
Age 24 and below (11)25 - 35 (98) 36 - 45 (95)46 - 55 (91) 56 and above (37) Sex Male (227)Female (105) Monthly Below 10,000 (9)10,001- Family Income 20,000 (41)20,001- 30,000
(108)30,001- 40,000 (112) 40,001 and above (62)
Occupation Lecturer (70)Lawyer (70) Doctor (65)
Engineer (65) Executive (62)
Note: Figures in brackets represent the number of respondents
5.0 MEASUREMENTS 5.1 Measuring Involvement
Involvement has been operationalised on various dimensions and as a result we find widely disseminated involvement scales developed. Most of these scales utilized Likert like formats and bipolar scales measured on five or seven points.
The number of items ranged from six to
over thirty.
Authors who attempted multidimensional approach to measure the involvement construct, generally observed that the scales lack a second reliable dimension.
Jensen et al (1989) suggested that involvement may be multidimensional both between products and when collapsing across products. However, in utilizing involvement dimensions for a specific product, those dimensions beyond unity should be considered unreliable fq subsequent products unless demonstrated otherwise. Hence, for the purpose of this study, Zaichkowsky's (1985) unidimensional conception of involvement was adapted. Zaichkowsky developed seven point twenty item bipolar scale called Personal-Involvement-Inventory (PII) to measure consumer involvement.
This instrument is simple and applicable across products, brand decisions and advertisements as stimuli. Though there are some minor weaknesses (Mittal 1989) in the instrument, it is one of the most widely used scales and tested for various validity measures and reliability tests across cultures. In the Indian context; it was used successfully by Sharma (2000) in her study.
For our study the scale was modified by converting the bipolar items into Likert like scales. This is a departure from what Zaichkowsky (1985) argued that Likert scale items were problematic "because items that seemed to be appropriate for frequently purchased goods did not seem to apply to durable goods and vie versa".
But we resorted to Likert like scales primarily because during preliminary
field visit bipolar items were not easily understood by the respondents. Added, we measured the construct on a five point scale instead of the seven point bipolar scale used by Zaichkowsky. This is because respondents found the difference between two intervals in a seven point scale to be very narrow.
The adapted scale of Zaichkowsky's Personal Involvement Inventory (PII) had 20 items measuring the consumer involvement of two products separately.
As the items were measured using a five point scale with minimum value of 1 and maximum value of 5 the theoretical values of the responses for each product would
.be in the range of 20 to 100.
5.2 Measuring Demographics
To operationalise the Family Life Cycle it was important to decide on the number of stages that a family undergoes in the context of the respondents of the study.
Literature suggests numerous typologies of Family Life Cycle. Traditional Family Life Cycle (Schiffman and Kanuk 2002) considers five stages; which are
bachelorhood, honeymooners, parenthood, post parenthood and
dissolution. Later on there were many non traditional family life cycles proposed better reflecting the diversity of the
changing family and lifestyle
arrangements in the societies (Schaninger
and Danko 1993). A modernized family
life cycle typology proposed by Murphy
and Staples (1979) exhibits an extended
family life cycle schema and reflects the
changing consumer lifestyle realities in
138 Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management ; March, 2007
USA. There are about thirteen life stages in this model. Similar typology was also offered by Wilkes (1995). However, for the purpose of the study, traditional family life cycle was chosen as it represents the conditions of respondents of our study.
The terms used in the study for the five stages are bachelorhood, recently married, married and at least one child below 20 years, married and children above 20 years, married and alone. As the measurement was ordinal, each of the stage is given a serial number in the order starting from one to five.
Age has been categorised into five segments;
namely, below 25 years, 25 - 35 years, 36 - 45 years, 46 - 55 years and 56 years and above. As the measurement was ordinal, each of the stage is given a serial number in the order starting from one to five.
this level is given a number in ascending order starting with 1 for the first level to 5 for the last level.
As stated in the sample plan, five occupations have been selected namely lecturers, lawyers, doctors, engineers and business executives.
6.0 FINDINGS
6.1 Consumer Involvement
Cronbach alpha values for the twenty item five point scale measuring consumer involvement stood at 0.6993 and 0.6773 for television and toilet soap respectively (Table 2). An important reason for the reliability values being less than the alpha values got by Zaichkowsky (1986) could be the changes we have introduced in the PH; changing from semantic scales to Likert like scales and seven point to five point scale. However, as these values are generally within the acceptable range of reliability, we consider that there is a reasonable level of internal consistency within the items of the scale
Involvement Level Categories T test Cronbach Low Low to
Moderate Moderate
To High High Total Alpha"
Television N 8(2.4) 52(15.7) 124(37.3) 148(44.6 332(100) ** 0.6993
Mean 56 60 64.19 73.56 67.52
Tooth Paste N 217(65.4) 71(21.4) 36(10.8) 8(2.4) 332(100) ** 0.6773
Mean 51.15 60.69 65 76 55.29
** Significant at .01 level. Figures in brackets indicate percentages # Number of items = 20, measured on five point Likert like scale
For the purpose of the study, we have categorized family income into five levels which are, below Rs. 10,000, Rs 10,001 - 20,000, Rs. 20,001 - 30, 000, Rs. 30,001 -
40, 000 and Rs. 40,001 and above. Each of (Table 2 about here) Table 2: Consumer Involvement for Products
Mean scores of consumer involvement of two products was obtained after summating the twenty items scores of the individual responses.
Mean scores of the involvement levels for two products (Table 2) television and toilet soaps are 67.52 and 55.29 respectively. Scores indicate that the involvement level for television is higher than the toothpaste. The mean scores were classified into four groups on the basis of quartiles and median scores. The respondents with scores 'below 57' were considered as low involved, between '58 - 62' as low to moderately involved, between '63 - 66' as moderate to high involved and '67 and above' were considered as highly involved. Classification of mean scores indicates that the distribution of consumer involvement for each product is varying (Table 2). For each product there are low involved, low to moderately involved, moderate to high involved and high involved consumers. The table also reveals that majority of the consumers for television is either highly involved or moderate to high involved. For toilet soap majority of the consumers are low involved. Thus, tentatively we can conclude that there is variation in the consumer involvement levels within a product category. To test if these differences are significant are not, t test was conducted. The
results (Table 2) reveal that the differences in the means are significant within each product category. Hence, hypotheses 1(a) and 1 (b) are accepted. 6.2 Family Life
CycleCross tabulation of consumer involvement scores and family life stages for two products reveals that among the unmarried respondents, almost all of the respondents are highly involved in television and low involved in the toilet soap (Table 3). This might be because of less number of respondents in the category. Among the remaining stages of family life stages too, most of the respondents' level of involvement for television is high and level of involvement for toilet soaps is low. In total, the involvement level of television is high and the involvement level of the toilet soap is low.
ANOVA results reveal that there is no significant difference in involvement levels for toilet soap (Table 3). For television there are significant differences (p<0.05) across the stages of family life cycle. Hence, hypothesis two is partially accepted. Post hoc test results for the dependent variable consumer involvement of television indicate that two stages namely unmarried and married with no children have significantly different means when compared to means of other stages (Table 3).
(For table 3 see next page)
6.3AgeCross tabulated results reveals that across the
age groups, most of the consumers have
considered television as high
140 Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management ; March, 2007
Table 3: Cross Tabulation and Anova of Family Life Stage and Consumer Involvement Consumer
Involvement levels
Television Toilet Soap
I II III IV V Total I II III IV V Total below 57
58 - 62 63 - 66 67andabove Total Mean Std.
Deviation
0 1 2 8 11 73.36 11.34
6 11 22 19 58 65.57
7.13 2 24 62 49 137 67.09
7.43
0 16 35 65 116 68.47
7.32
0 0 3 7 10 67.1 2.33
8 52 124 148 332 67.52
7.5 7 3 1 0 11 55.36
5.55 41
7 10
0 58 54.62
7.02 99 18 14 6 137 54.38
8.43 63 41 10 2 116 56.6 5.96
7 2 1 0 10 56.4 3.78
217 71 36 8 332 55.36 7.25
ANOVA 3.329 (Sig .011) 1.690 (Sig .152) Scheffe
Multiple Comparison
(I, II)
Note: Here, I = unmarried II = married with no children, III = Married and Children < 20 years, IV = Married and Children > 20 years, V = Married and alone
involved product and toilet soap as low involved product (Table 4). For television, mean differences are decreasing as we move over age segments. For toilet soap however, mean values almost remain same but for the age segment of 46 — 55 which shows high involvement level against other age segments. Reasons for such an interesting trend could not be identified in the survey.
ANOVA test also reveals also indicates that there is a significant difference of involvement levels for both television and toilet soaps across age groups (Table 4).
Hence, third hypothesis is accepted. Post
hoc tests reveal that for the dependent variable consumer involvement of television, mean values of two age groups namely; 24 and below and 25 – 35 are significantly different when compared to means of other groups (Table 4). For the dependent variable consumer involvement of toilet soap, mean values of two age groups 36 - 45 and 46 – 55 are significantly different when compared to mean values of other groups.
6.4 Sex
Cross tabulation of sex and consumer involvement reveals that for both males and females, television is high involved
Table 4: Cross Tabulation and Anova of Age' and Consumer Involvement
Consumer Involvement levels
Television Toilet Soap
I II III IV V Total I II III IV V Total below 57
58 - 62 63 - 66
67 and above N
Mean Std.
Deviation
0 1 2 8 11 73.36 11.34
8 21 34 35 98 65.93
7.36 0 14 48 33 95 67.43
7.39 0 16 25 50 91 68.66
7.9 0 0 15 22 '37 67.38
4.11 8 52 124 148 332 67.52
7.5 7 3 1 0 11 55.36
5.55 72 10 16 0 98 54.73
6.76 66 15 8 6 95 54.22
9.2 41 40 8 2 91 57.86
5.52 31
3 3 0 37 53.79
5.35 217
71 36 8 332 55.29
7.25
ANOVA 3.396 (Sig .010) 4.473 (Sig .002) Scheffe
Multiple Comparison
(I, II)(III, IV)
Note: Here I = 24 and below, II = 25 - 35, III = 36 - 45, IV = 46 - 55, V = 56 and above # Age in number of years
product and toilet soap is low involved test reveal that there are no significant product (Table 5). Mean values of differences between male and female for consumer involvement from the Table 5 both the products. Hence, fourth reveal that they are equal and chi square hypothesis is not accepted.
Table 5: Cross Tabulation of Sex and Consumer Involvement
Consumer
Involvement Levels Television Toilet Soap
Male Female Total Male Female Total
below 57 6 2 8 152 65 217
58 - 62 35 17 52 44 27 71
63 - 66 84 40 124 26 10 36
67 and above 102 46 148 5 3 8
Total 227 105 332 227 105 332
Mean 67.64 67.25 67.52 55.07 55.76 55.29
Standard Deviation 7.69 7.12 7.5 7.31 7.13 7.25
Chi Square Test Value 233 (Sig .972) 2.001 (Sig .572)
142 V i t a k s h a n , X 1 M B J o u r n a l o f M a n a g e m e n t ; M a r c h, 2007
6.5 Family Income
Cross tabulation of consumer involvement levels and income levels of the consumer shows that across the income levels the involvement level of television is considered to be high and involvement level of toilet soap is low (Table 6). Low income respondents have shown higher involvement levels for both television and toilet soap when compared to other levels of income. ANOVA also reveals that there is no significant difference of involvement levels for toilet soap across the levels of income (Table 6).
However, for the television there is significant differences (p<0.05) across the
income levels. This reveals that a low involved product like toilet soap has no great differences for all income consumers. Post hoc tests indicate significant differences of means for television for the income levels of (below 10,000, 10,001 -20,000), (10,001 - 20,000), (20,001- 30,000), (20,001 - 30,000), (30,001 - 40,000) and (40,001 and above) (Table 6).
6.6 Occupation
Cross tabulation of consumer involvement levels and occupation reveals that across the occupational categories; the involvement level of Table 6: Cross Tabulation and Anova of Monthly Family Income and Consumer Involvement
Income/
Consumer Involvement
Television Toilet Soap
I II III IV V Total I II III IV V Total
below 57 58 - 62 63 - 66 67 and above Total Mean Std.
Deviation
0 0 2 7 9 76.2 10.85
2 9 14 16 41 67.61
9.32 4 13 39 52 108 68.13
8.13 1 21 48 42 112 66.16
5.12 1 9 21 31 62 67.56
7.38 8 52 124 148 332 67.52
7.5 5 3 1 0 9 57 4.44
22 14 4 1 41 56.02
7.45 73 23 10 2 108 54.72
6.98 75 17 16 4 112 55.61
7.91 42 14 5 1 62 54.98
6.71 217 71 36 8
332 55.29 7.25 ANOVA 4.288 (Sig .002) .475 (Sig .754)
Scheffe Multiple Comparison
(I, II) (I, III), (I, IV), (I, V)
Note: Here, I = below 10,000, II = 10,001 — 20,000, III = 20,001— 30,000, IV = 30,001— 40,000, V = 40,001 and above
television is high and involvement level of toilet soap is low (Table 7). Involvement level of executives is more for television when compared to other occupational categories. For the toilet soap, the involvement levels are almost similar -across the categories.
ANOVA results also
reveal that there is significant differences (p<0.05) in the mean values of consumer involvement of television (Table 7). Post hoc tests indicate that mean values of lawyers and executives, doctor and executives, engineer and executives differ significantly (Table 7).
Table 7: Cross Tabulation and Anova of Occupation and Consumer Involvement
Television Toilet Soap
I II III IV V Total I II III IV V Total below 57
5below 57 58 - 62 63 - 66 67 and above Total Mean Std.
Deviation
0 1 8 26 35 70 68.64
8.47 2 3 15 26 26 70 65.69
5.46 4 1 13 26 25 65 66.23
5.49 1 2 11 28 24 65 65.92
5.39 1 1 5 18 38 62 71.32
10.2 8 8 52 124 148 332 67.52
7.5 5 46 16 7 1 70 54.96
6.95 22 45 14 9 2 70 55.61
7.6 73 46 9 7 3 65 55.51
7.82 75 43 12 8 2 65 55.15
7.74 42 43 12 8 2 62 55.23
6.13 217 217 71 36 8 332 55.29 7.25
ANOVA 7.123 (Sig .000) .093 (Sig .985) Scheffe
Multiple Comparison
(II, V), (III, V), (IV, V)
Note: Here I = Lecturer, II = Lawyer, III = Doctor, IV = Engineer, V = Executive
7.0 CONCLUSION & MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
Our objective was to identify the relationship between demographics and the consumer involvement levels in Indian context which has been less explored area as of now.
After reviewing literature available on the constructs we
have surveyed over three hundred thirty respondents. In the survey, we identified that the involvement levels differ from individual to individual and later classified the involvement scores into four levels using quartile deviations. We have also identified that the level of involvement differs from product to product.
Involvement level for television
144 Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management ; March, 2007
has been found to be more than the toilet soap. Later we also found that most of the demographic variables have significant influence on the involvement levels for both the products. ANOVA results have show that the demographic variables like Family Life Cycle stages, age, income, occupation and sex have significant influence on the involvement of the high involved product. However, family life cycle, income and occupation do not have significant influence on the low involved product. These findings are interesting and useful for marketers. Marketers of low involved products can use age and sex as the key variables for planning their marketing strategies. For high involved products, each of the demographic variables is to be considered for designing the marketing strategies.
Differences in the mean scores of the involvement levels for two products being significant gives the implication to marketer that there ought to be different marketing programmes for each of the product. An even bigger challenge for marketer is to bring the low involved product to a high involved status as it is likely to enhance the brand loyalty.
Differences in the mean scores of consumer involvement levels for various respondents within each product are significant. This implies that marketer can segment their markets on the basis of involvement levels and use different marketing strategies to tap the consumers.
The challenge for the marketers of the television product is to convert the low
and low to moderate involved consumer to high or moderate to high involved consumer. Though the percentage of the respondents is lower in this case, when we extrapolate the results, the number of respondents would be high. For the marketers of toilet soap the challenge is in converting a significant number of respondents who are in the low and low to moderate levels of involvement to high and moderate to high involved levels.
After collating the consumer involvement level mean scores with various stages of family life cycle, the information has implications for marketing managers of television product. Marketing of television using the family life cycle stage should be differentiated for the unmarried and married with no children. The rest of the stages can be offered television with similar marketing strategies. However, for the product toilet soap, there are no significant differences among any of the stages of family life cycle and hence marketing of the product need not be differentiated.
Age and involvement levels also, when
'combined, give implications of significant importance to the marketers. Television is widely preferred in the age groups of 36 - 45 and 46 - 55, while soaps are preferred by the age group of 46 - 55.
Marketers need to target these segments of the market as they are more revenue generators than other groups. While designing strategies for television to different age segments, marketers need to consider that the age groups 24 and below
and 25 - 36 are significantly. Similarly for toilet soap the age groups 36 - 45 and 46 - 55 should be treated differently.
For the product television, involvement levels of consumers who are below Rs.
10,000 is high probably because of their ability to take financial risk. If marketers offer products with innovative price offers, consumers below the bottom of the pyramid would give more business. As indicated in the findings, almost all income level respondents differ in the involvement level of television and hence marketers need to differentiate their marketing strategies accordingly. They need to introduce products at various price points. For toilet soap however, there are no significant differences in the involvement levels across the income levels and hence marketers can consider the entire income level segment as one and design strategies accordingly.
For the product television, the involvement level of executives is higher than other occupations. And there are significant differences in involvement levels between various professions as mentioned in the analysis of data section which implies that marketing strategies need to be tuned accordingly. However, for the product toilet soap there are no such differences and hence there need not be any differential marketing approach for these segments.
The findings of the study are constrained by two major factors; few products for the study (2), and moderate sample (332).
Though some of the findings are similar to the results of past studies; there are also contrasting results that our study has found. In that sense, this study would be useful as an addition to the existing literature. Further, the scale is moderately consistent internally and we have not validated the instrument to our context which remains as another constraint.
REFERENCES
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